HET Millionaire Maker BJ tourney - GOOD NEWS & BAD NEWS!

Well, the GOOD NEWS is that I just took 2nd place in 1st Harrahs Millionaire Blackjack Qualifying Tournament held at Lake Tahoe today and will now compete for $1 Million in AUG at Caesar's Palace.

The BAD NEWS is that those finals are being held during the week of Texas Tournaments' (2nd) "Blackjack Cruise" out of JAX (to Key West and the Nassau), so that Joyce and I will not be on the cruise.

I have all the format and other detail for both the 2 remaining qualifiers at Lake Tahoe (in APR and MAY) as well as the detail for the finals in AUG and will post them as time and "on the road" internet connections permits!

Chips

 

Congratulation

I hate to hear you and Joyce won't make it for the Blackjack Cruise this year, but I understand and congratulate you for your 2nd place finish in Lake Tahoe.

I also wish you good luck in the finals this August.

 

Harrahs Lake Tahoe $MM BJ qualifier details

First, I would like to thank all those for the congratulatory notes that I have received both publicly and privately. As indicated, below are details for the Harrahs Lake Tahoe event earlier this month as they will be holding two more – one in April and one in May as posted. Please keep in mind that each HET property are running their qualifiers a bit differently (as they are their Treasure Hunt promotions).

HET MM BJ Qualifier Tourney Detail (in addition to what has been already posted)

Regular registration the Saturday night prior to the Sunday tourney from 18:00 to 19:30 in the Special Events Center on the 2nd floor. “Gaming Instruction”, table/seating assignments, gift distribution (a two set “Hits of the 50s – which was the theme btw – HET employees in period costumes, 50s music during tourney), appetizers and cocktails.

Late arrival registration 08:00- 09:00 at Harrahs Center Stage on main floor

Three sessions each for Round 1 at 09:00, 09:45 & 10:30 and Round 2 at 11:30, 12:15 and 13:00. Nine tables of 6 each. These two rounds are accumulation. Top 35 go to semi-finals

Wild Card drawing at 14:15 (7) immediately followed by semi-finals. 7 tables of 6 each with (1) table winner going on to finals.

Finals at 15:15 – 7 players.

1st through 7th cash prizes: $15,000, 5,000, 3,500, 2,500, 1,500, 1,000 & 500. Top 6 get seats at $MM finals at Caesars in AUG including rooms and airfare. 7th is an alternate in case one of the 6 can not make it to LAS in AUG. Also 5 - $200 random draws from those not at finals table after prize distribution.

Seating by random draw – rotating first base beginning at natural first base.

All but final round start with 10,000 in non-negotiable tourney chips – final round with 20,000. Betting limits 100 – 5,000 for first 20 (of 25 hands). Count at 20 betting limits expanded to 100 – 10,000 for last 5 hands of all rounds. Six deck shoe, face up, house rules (DOA, DAS, RSA only once/no double afterwards, RS others to 4 hands, H17, no surrender.

Blackjacks pay 5:1 (!) – no insurance.

My Strategy/observations

When I asked (just an hour before I played btw – late registration). I was told that there were about 150 participants, so I used that number as the basis for my total accumulation goal with another 10 as a safety factor as input to the “square factor” formula. To that I added an absolute 5,000 as an adjustment for the 5:1 blackjack payoff to arrive at a targeted objective of ~ 45,000.

As the 35/150 ratio was not that high, nor was the amount needed to advance to the semis, I did not see the need to “push it out with both hands” Without getting into my specific betting strategy, I was fortunate and ended up with 42,000 for round 1. As experienced in the past, many were not familiar with accumulation playing strategy.

After round 1, they posted all the results. I was 9th of 139 player with a high of 80,000 (that guy got a blackjack on his last hand with 10,000 bet. 35th place was 20,800 (good old “square root formula [with adjustment for rules] – thanks again Dr. Wong!).

I figured I could “coast” through round 2 and did so, betting the minimum for all 25 hands and have 52,000 which should have given me about 30th place. As it turned out, even with a 5:1 blackjack, I ended up with 9,600 for a total of 51,600. That turned out to be 28th and 35th was 41,700 – virtually twice the round 1 cut off – don’t you just love it when the numbers work out!!

(Obviously), I was the table winner in the semi-finals, and chip leader for the last 3 hands.

My objective at the finals table was not to be 7th. By hand 15 one guy was had double his bankroll – others within a few thousand of each other. I was in 3rd at the count and correlating with those lower than me for the last 5 hands. A blackjack on my last hand gave me second – a pleasant surprise.

I have the format for the finals (different than at Tahoe) and will post as time permits. You are allowed to continue to play in qualifiers for the money, but can only win one seat. I haven’t decided about the 4 other qualifiers I have booked/scheduled – nice to have that kind of decision to make!!

Chips

 

Please allow me

The honor privilege and pleasure of adding this public note of congratulations to the private one that was already given!

 

A Mutual Pleasure

Many thanks my friend - looking forward to the next time we meet.

 

Finals Updated

The AUG finals at Caesars has been updated with the avaible detail on the Events Calendar.

Chips

 

Thank you

For this as well as numerous other updates.

 

Mr. Peterson

Just trying to do my part to contribute back to the (non-gender specific!) fraternity from which we all benefit. Good folks like yourself and our site host, Mr Smith are to be applauded for all you do both publicly and "behind the curtain".


Chips

 

Mr. McCoy

In addition to being too humble, you are very gracious and kind.

 

Bradley Peterson, Esquire

When you are as short and ugly as I am, and to still be alive, you know that it is just good business to try to be nice to folks.

 

Short and Ugly???

Chips... short maybe but your legs reach the ground. Ugly? Nah, don't forget it took all the wit I possess to divert the toolgirls attention from you at the LVH last fall.

 

Rookster

Hey, my legs don't always touch the ground, they still swing when I sit on the comode! Thanks for your kind words, but we both know that the "toolgirl" in question was only interested in that stack of "chips" in my pocket!

Chips

 

Behind The Curtain

Bradley Peterson behind a curtain.Now many thought's of what he could be doing behind that curtain come to mind.None of the thoughts are a pretty sight.But thats what makes Bradley the person that he is !!!

 

Congratulations Chips!!!!!!!

Congratulations Chips. It must be nice knowing you are going to the finals. It must seem especially gratifying that you made it into that position by calculating exactly what your goal was and then meeting that goal. And then to top it off, have your goal work on your behalf to get in.

You seemed to touch briefly on the formula and I kinda get the idea of it.....but can you go into more detail what the exact formula is that you used to calculate what goal was? What number do you square? Why did you choose 5000 to add to the total to compensate for the 5:1 BJ payoff? What are you refering to on the 35/150 ratio? How does the square root calculation come into play (what number are you taking the square root of)?

Thankyou in advance for your help and sharing of this very intriguing formula.

Best of luck in the next qualifiers if you decide to play them and especially good luck in the finals.

 

21playerBJ

I am on the road now and have limited internet access time - will have to compose answers to your questions off line and then post - may be a day or two

Chips

 

I can wait

Thanks Chips
I am patient. I Have not seen anything like you describe before (maybe I just didn't know it exists) so I can certainly wait a few days for something that sounds so valuable. I'd rather have good accurate information that I don' mind waiting for than to get truncated or confusing info that I may still not be able to decifer.

Thanks for the quick note back to let me know of your intentions.

Be safe traveling!!

 

This is a mite confusing.

Is there anywhere that lists the scheduled tournaments in this series by Harrah's location and time? It sorta seems like there's mini-qualifiers for the Qualifiers (maybe like at Ak-Chin in Phoenix, but last month!), but I cannot get a handle on 'em. And are any of the mini-qualifiers or qualifiers open . . . or is everything invitational?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Harrah's Qualifiers

It's a bit confusing because, for some reason, Harrah's does not seem to be advertising this to the general public. The qualifiers are mostly invitational and a player card is required for the ones that are "open". Even the "open " events probably require some play prior to registering for the qualifiers. I am not aware of a central place where the qualifier locations are listed. Also, each qualifier has their own format - nothing is standard.

The event this weekend (3/4/05) at Harrah's Prairie Band Casino (Kansas) is "open" but is probably full by now.

Don't know if I helped clarify anything. Just mentioning what I know.

 

21playerBJ - my answers in [brackets] to your questions

Congratulations Chips. It must be nice knowing you are going to the finals. It must seem especially gratifying that you made it into that position by calculating exactly what your goal was and then meeting that goal. And then to top it off, have your goal work on your behalf to get in.

[Thanks for the note – yes on all counts above. As I originally stated in my narrative, it is not always the case when you “meet your goal”. The proper objective is the easy part! However, “succeed or bust out” is really not that difficult either. But is sure is nice when things/the numbers work out and, you can accomplish them, as it is only the cards themselves that are beyond your control – the goal, your bets and how you play the hands are within your control]

You seemed to touch briefly on the formula and I kinda get the idea of it.....but can you go into more detail what the exact formula is that you used to calculate what goal was? What number do you square? Why did you choose 5000 to add to the total to compensate for the 5:1 BJ payoff? What are you refering to on the 35/150 ratio? How does the square root calculation come into play (what number are you taking the square root of)?

[The formula is stated in Stanford Wong’s “Casino Tournament Strategy” (pg 30 if you have the 1997 printing) and it is a square root, not a square – while reading/understanding/practicing will not make you a top player against today’s competition, it is a must read for the basics on all aspects of tourney play. Stated simply, it says that your goal should be to increase your bankroll by the factor or the square root of (the total number of entrants divided by the number that will advance). In my case, it was the square root of 150/35. I choose to add 5000 to that basis as the rounds were each 25 hands and on the average (and that is what we are dealing with here is the law of large numbers) you get a blackjack every 22 hands or so, or that everybody should get just over 1 in the session. It was an experiential assessment that the average bet would be 1000 in this tourney. Hence, 5000 for a 5:1 BJ at 1000. Hope this helps/clarifies things for you]

Thankyou in advance for your help and sharing of this very intriguing formula.

[You are most welcome, I am happy to educate those that are interested in learning from a “pass it forward” standpoint – which was the motive behind my pubic posts of both the tourney details and my thought process – and btw, I invite any criticism of my thought process – I am always willing to learn!]

Best of luck in the next qualifiers if you decide to play them and especially good luck in the finals.

[Thanks again]

Chips